Policing Mid-Size Cities—A Call for Research and Advocacy

A summation of the IACP call to action, “Out of the Shadows: Policy Research for Mid-Size Law
Enforcement Agencies”

The successes and challenges of mid-size cities and their police departments have not
been a distinct area of research, development, or evaluation in either the urban policy
arena or the police community. While large law enforcement agencies and smaller rural
departments benefit from specialized conferences, training, and advocacy groups, little
of the same is available to mid-size departments. The fact that mid-size cities and police
departments are distinct in their own right, with much to offer and much to gain, has
gone unnoticed.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Office of Community
Oriented Policing (the COPS Office) recognize this gap. Led by a network of motivated
and forward-thinking mid-size city chiefs and with encouragement and financial
support from the COPS Office, the IACP is exploring the concerns of this unique
segment of the police community and the options to address them.

This article summarizes the results of two meetings of the newly formed IACP Mid-Size
Cities Advisory Committee. This committee was charged with the following objectives:

To better understand current community environments and operating
cultures of mid-size cities and police agencies

To sharpen focus on policing issues and needs of greatest contemporary
significance to mid-size cities, communities, and police agencies

To prioritize and fashion an action agenda to address issues and needs
that are identified through these meetings.

The advisory committee began its work by attempting to define “mid-size.” Efforts to
identify a firm definition from a police perspective were interesting and enlightening,
but ultimately unsuccessful. Research for a definitive demographic definition, or even
for a softer, less precise description of characteristics, yielded little of value. Given the
lack of emphasis on this area of study, perhaps this is not surprising.

The scope of the mid-size phenomenon appears, however, when the number of
cities/police departments is classified by mid-size as shown below using U.S. Census
Bureau data, which lists 19,490 cities, in 2007. The “mids,” those between 50,000 and
500,000, number 658 and host a population approaching that of small cities and almost
twice that of the largest cities.

Group consensus determined that the mid-size city agencies might be bifurcated into
two groups: 50,000 to 100,000 and 101,000 to 500,000. Clear throughout the discourse
was the recognition that there exists a significant group of cities that have a lot to offer
the field and a lot to gain through a collective voice.

The ways in which mid-size police agencies are similar to and different from large
agencies is another inquiry lacking contemporary research. Mid-size departments
confront a range of “big-city” issues, and their experiences with these problems are
largely without research. Those mentioned most frequently by network chiefs are:

Servicing and adapting to diverse racial and ethnic cultures

In-migration of gangs and/or gang members

Terrorism and critical incidents

Illegal immigration

Recruitment

Declining resources/revenues.

Conversely, mid-size police departments also possess a combination of characteristics,
some positive and some not, which in the view of chiefs serve to differentiate them from
big-city police agencies. Mid-size departments:

Fall through the federal/justice funding gaps and have
resource/operating limitations that big cities do not

Have fewer and less frequently available promotional opportunities,
leading to retention stresses and greater concentration on motivational
skills/strategies

Are very close to the ground, very involved in the city/city government,
and often enjoy government/community perceptions that are perhaps
more positive than larger departments

Are more nimble, lacking the layers of hierarchy evident in big cities,
allowing for flexibility and the ability to more easily affect change and
innovate.

A case for concentrating attention on mid-size cities need not rest on generalized
inattention or any other factor introduced to this point. Indeed, there is a far more
compelling reason: the pattern of violent crime in America may be shifting, in relative
dimension.

A 2006 report from the Community Research Council in Chattanooga, Tennessee, noted
“between 2000 and 2005, murder and non-negligent homicide in mid-size cities (cities
with a 2000 population between 100,000 and 300,000) has increased by 22.2 percent. The
rate was two and a half times the rate of increase for the nation as a whole (8.5 percent)
and more than 50 percent higher than that of large cities.”1 Furthermore, 14 (56 percent)
of the top 25 most violent metropolitan statistical areas in 2008, as measured by rates
per 100,000 population, have between 50,000 and 500,000 residents. Seven fall in the
population range of 100,000 to 250,000.

While to use these data to declare a shift in the national pattern of crime is presumptive,
they do draw attention to the fact that mid-size cities are experiencing significant
violence. More analysis into mid-size cities—and advocacy for them—is required.

To that end, and based on the unanimous recommendation of the advisory committee,
the IACP is moving forward and exploring formal creation of a Mid-Size City Section
within the IACP’s membership. The basic purpose of this section will be to fashion a
mid-size agency body of knowledge and enable participating executives to share
concerns, best practices, and experiences among themselves and with other larger and
smaller agencies. In service to the police profession as a whole, this initiative makes
sense and already has garnered a great deal of excitement and support within IACP and
the COPS Office.

The COPS Office will publish a detailed monograph of the findings of the meetings of
IACP’s Mid-Size Cities Advisory Committee later this year.